I listened to this one and wasn’t overwhelmed by the narrator, so that likely colored my opinion. The repeated trope of determined woman haring off without regard to hers or anyone else’s safety and the big strong policeman husband angrily chastising her is worn out after this many episodes into the series. ( )

October 1890. Just as Sarah Bain has married DS Thomas Barrett, a body is discovered. It is identified as Charles Firth, photographer, who seemingly died during the night in a locked church. While Sarah and her two friends Mick O'Reilly and Hugh Staunton investigate Firth's death, Sarah and her half-sister Sally investigate the 24 year old murder of Ellen Casey, as their father is the prime suspect.
For me there was not enough mystery and too much emphasis on the past.
An ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )

Newly married newspaper reporter, Sarah and her policeman husband, Barrett, find themselves solving two murders revolving around the Victorian rage of seances and ghost sightings. Sarah and Barrett are up to the task, but it becomes personal when one of their friends, Mick, is accused of one of the murders. Along with this Sarah is trying to help her father, now on the run, prove he was not responsible for a rape and murder 24 years ago. The fifth book in the Victorian Mystery series lives up to the expectations of its many fans. ( )

Hauntings unbridled!

Strangely, I has a secondary comment running though my consciousness when reading this. I was remembering my pleasure when I purchased the Phantom Comic, "Married at Last," when Mr. Walker and Diana Palmer finally tied the knot. Of course there's no prize for guessing what spurred that memory being dredged up from my brain's vault. After a torrid relationship Sara Bain and Detective Sergeant Thomas Barrett are no sooner finishing their last I do's in a church in Bethnel Green when chaos breaks out. Murder in the crypt!
It's fitting that the action takes place in the caverns and crypts under the church, in the hazy fog of the day. All is shades of grey frequently stained by the bizarre. Mediums and criminals mix. A clever title that looks to the interests of the day through a different lens.
Sara Bain / Barrett is a complex character. A crime photographer and reporter for the Daily World newspaper, she's loyal, determined, gifted and haunted.
Haunted by her childhood, by her father's life, by her mother's hardness. Her father,
"Benjamin Bain, had been missing for twenty-four years...The prime suspect in the 1866 murder of a young girl, he’s a fugitive from the law." Sara and her newly found half sister Sally have reunited with him and are trying to prove his innocence.
This next episode of Sara's life is no less harrowing than the previous.
Relationships are bruised and mended with new understandings. Once again, as one door closes another opens beckoning us on with Sara.
I think reading this without reference to former parts of the series reduces an understanding of Sara and her group of 'family', including Lord Hugh Stanton and Mick O'Reilly which impacts the reader’s deeper perspective. I am always on tenterhooks with Sara. She's an unusual character, likeable and yet not, even shocking at times. From the beginning I've had this love/hate relationship with her. Even so, her story is never dull.

A Crooked Lane ARC via NetGalley
Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.) ( )

Portrait Of Peril is the fifth book in the Victorian Mystery series by Laura Joh Rowland.

The wedding of Sarah Bain, newspaper photographer, and Detective Sergeant Thomas Barrett is about to begin, and Sarah’s biggest fear is that when the question is there anyone who objects to the marriage, is that her mother-in-law to be will say yes. Sarah was relieved when there was no objection, but the relief is short-lived. Shortly after Sarah and Thomas’ wedding vows are exchanged, there is a scream, and the person yells that there is a dead body in the crypt. Sarah and Thomas immediately head for the crypt. When they arrive, Sarah is surprised to see the body of Charles Firth. Firth had sold Sarah her first camera when she decided to follow her father’s footsteps and be a photographer. Sarah is surprised to learn that Firth is now a spirit photographer. Thomas begins his investigation of the scene while Sarah photographs the scene. As the investigation into Firth’s death proceeds, Thomas and Sarah will soon be investigating a faction that believes that there is no such thing as ghosts, therefore impossible to photograph them. They are also looking into Firth’s widow and the publisher of the book of spirits that Firth had published. When at an area where ghosts reportedly have been seen, there is another body found. When the body is discovered, Mike, Sarah’s friend, is found holding the used knife. Sarah’s nemesis, Inspector Reed, immediately arrests young Mike.

Besides searching for Firth’s killer, Sarah is also dealing with trying information that clears her father from charges of murder when she was in her early teen years. In addition to Mike, she counts on Lord Hugh to help with her photographing and investigations, has gone missing.

The story is well-written and plotted, and I feel that it is historically correct. The characters are well-developed and believable. I would like to call all of them a friend.

I will be watching for the next book in this exciting series. ( )